The Record · project · Black Hill to Raymond Terrace
M1 Pacific Motorway extension
The 15 km motorway link from Black Hill to Raymond Terrace that removes the Hexham bottleneck, running more than a year ahead of schedule.
Record page started 3 July 2026 · last checked 17 August 2026 · grows as milestones land
What it is
An extension of the M1 Pacific Motorway from Black Hill to Raymond Terrace, in two sections: a 10 km southern section (Black Hill to Tomago) and the 5 km northern Heatherbrae Bypass, which includes the Raymond Terrace interchange, the Masonite Road overpass and a bridge over Windeyers Creek. With the companion Hexham Straight widening it is jointly funded at $2.24 billion: $1.792 billion federal, $448 million NSW. The existing road carries nearly 25,000 vehicles on a normal day, more in school holidays.
Entries
- Sep 2026The motorway opens. A joint
release from the Prime Minister, the Premier and the NSW Roads Minister on 9 September said
it would open to traffic in the early hours of 11 September,
around 18 months earlier than originally planned
, and put the peak-hour saving at seven to nine minutes. By 4 October Transport for NSW was describing worksfollowing the opening
. Our story. - 8 Apr 2026The Heatherbrae Bypass is complete, and governments announce the whole motorway will open in late 2026, more than a year ahead of the previous 2028 date, once the southern section finishes “later this year”. Our story.
- 16 Aug 2026The date set for Transport for NSW’s community open day, a once-only chance to walk the motorway before it carries traffic: 10am to 4pm, shuttle bus only from Beresfield Swimming Centre, registration via the project portal. That date has now passed, and as at 17 August the agency’s project page still carried the invitation in the present tense. Our story.
- Until 2028Post-opening, contractors remain on site for monitoring, landscaping and maintenance: up to two years on the southern section and one year on the northern.
- Pre-2026Project approved and under construction with a stated completion expectation of 2028 (referenced in the April 2026 announcement as the superseded date).
What we don’t know yet
Measured travel-time savings. The seven-to-nine-minute peak figure above is the governments’ own estimate from the opening release; no measured before-and-after figure has been published. This page updates when Transport for NSW or the ministers publish one.
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